


Tasting Strawberries

by sniperct



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Hope, Nervousness, New Years, inspired by a song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28486641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sniperct/pseuds/sniperct
Summary: Aerith and Tifa have always worked well together, but a little mistake at midnight makes for an awkward first day of the year. At least, that's what Tifa thinks.Aerith has other ideas.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart
Comments: 27
Kudos: 105





	Tasting Strawberries

**Author's Note:**

> Lets get the year started with something nice and sweet. Also I listened to Taylor Swift's 'New Years Day' on repeat for this and I hope it shows.

Tifa could taste strawberries on her lips but she was trying to forget what the source of that taste had been as she moved quietly through the bar. In the chilly pre-dawn hours, there was hardly any sound. Most of the guests had already gone home, though clearly not everyone had. As she stepped over Barret’s prone and snoring body, she could see that Cloud was passed out in another corner. Tifa shook her head as she knelt to pick up a discarded bottle. Manicured fingers brushed hers and she looked up into pale green eyes. 

“It’s okay,” Tifa whispered, flashes of strawberry lips and fingers tangled in her hair rushing through her mind. “I’ve got this.” Those eyes were relentless, staring into her and staring through her and it was all she could do just to be able to look away.

“I want to help,” Aerith insisted. Tifa was unable to object again.

They’d always worked well together after all, and they gathered the bottles all to one place, placing them into boxes for the boys to carry out to the recycling bin. There’d been remarkably little spillage and the worst damage from the party had been the wall around the dartboard and the glitter that now coated Barret’s head. Aerith added a few more fingerfulls as she passed him and rushed up to Tifa’s side

“We’ll make Cloud patch up the wall,” Aerith said, her hand on Tifa’s elbow as she guided her out of Seventh Heaven. “His fault for trying to beat me at darts anyway.

“If I recall most of the holes in the wall are from you.” Tifa savored the touch, the casual intimacy that had always been maddening, and let Aerith lead her to wherever it was that they were going.

“Pish posh.”

They wound up in the alleyway, and Aerith clambered up a pipe in her beautiful New Year’s dress. It sparkled red and orange in the streetlamps, dazzling Tifa as she started to climb up after her. A flash of a matching thong nearly made her lose her grip but she recovered, and hoisted herself up onto the roof, face burning. She watched as Aerith plopped herself down, and then followed suit, putting some space between them in a vain effort to give herself a chance to cool down.

Her friend was beautiful and stubborn and kind of a little troll at times but now she couldn’t get the image out of her mind.

Aerith looked at the shingles then at Tifa, before she scooted over until their hips and arms were pressed together, “Gonna get cold with you all the way over here.”

TIfa licked her lips, tasting the strawberries again, “It would be warmer inside.” It had meant nothing, she tried to tell herself.

Laughing, Aerith peered up at the heavens above them. The stars were faint, and she could feel Aerith sighing against her, “I hate the lights. They drown out the stars. For thousands of years we looked up at the sky and saw countless stars and colors and the Milky Way itself but now?” She gestured at the sky, “It’s a pale shadow of the glory we were given.”

“Have you ever seen the night sky _outside_ of the city?” Tifa asked.

Hand dropping to the roof between them, Aerith shook her head. Tifa’s fingers brushed Aerith’s and she said, “I grew up in a very small town high in the mountains. If you’d ever seen the night sky up there, you’d be even madder about the lights. I could take you sometime?”

Aerith turned towards her, picking up her hand and squeezing it between both of hers, “Really? You mean that?”

“Yes!” Tifa laughed. And maybe it was a mistake, maybe she was taking a risk, but she added, “The boys can mind the bar while we’re away. I’m sure it won’t be a total disaster.”

“Okay!” And then Aerith was hugging her, the momentum of her lunge knocking Tifa over. She tasted those strawberries again and smelled the scent of flowers as Aerith kissed her. Unlike their kiss at midnight, Tifa couldn’t blame the drinking or the heat of the moment. She’d sobered up in the wee hours. Aerith’s body was warm and inviting, her lips soft. 

Aerith lifted her head and Tifa opened her eyes, looking up at her, afraid to speak and shatter the moment. Whatever this moment might mean.

“I’ll need to get time off,” Aerith said. “So we’ll go on Valentine’s Day. Do you think we could stay in a lodge? I’ll bet the view would be _gorgeous_.”

Sometimes, Tifa forgot how quickly Aerith moved once she’d settled on a course of action. Stubborn to a fault, it took a lot of convincing to get her to change her mind, though she was able to alter her plans to accommodate someone else. It was a bit like being run over by a car wearing a bow and yet Tifa couldn’t get enough of it. “Valentine’s Day. You want to go on _Valentine’s Day_.”

Aerith booped her nose, “Got a problem with that?”

“No.” Tifa grinned at her. A romantic trip to the mountains to show Aerith the full majesty of the night sky? How could she turn that down? “Just… just us, right?”

“I want to make good memories with you, Tifa.” Aerith’s eyes sparkled like the stars she was clearly so excited to see, “And V-Day is way far away. _So_. Dinner tomorrow night. Say eight?”

“What would you do if I said no?” Tifa asked, head spinning. God, she was genuinely and hopelessly in love with Aerith but sometimes the woman was _a lot_.

Aerith’s nuzzled Tifa’s jaw, the fingers of one hand dancing at the hem of her skirt, “I wouldn’t have asked if I thought you might say no.”

“Eight is fine,” she breathed, tilting her head back as Aerith gently bit at her throat, before giggling softly and pillowing her head onto Tifa’s chest. Tifa’s mind played back over all the times they’d cuddled together like this before and she wondered if maybe she’d misread the signs. Or simply hadn’t let herself read them.

Slowly. Tifa stroked a hand down Aerith’s back and then up again, “Can I ask you something?”

“Mm, of course.”

“Why tonight?”

Aerith didn’t answer right away, instead tracing a finger up and down Tifa’s bicep. But Tifa didn’t get the sense that Aerith was trying to avoid answering, only that she was thinking it through.

“Tonight,” Aerith said finally. “A new year. New years are about new beginnings. Chances to try new things or go for something you’ve wanted but have been too afraid to.”

“You? Afraid of something?”

“Everyone gets afraid sometimes, silly.” Aerith stopped tracing Tifa’s bicep and simply rested her hand there. And maybe squeezed just a little, “You and… everyone, are the family I’ve never had before. There’s this delicate balance that I didn’t want to upset and I couldn’t entirely tell what you were thinking when you looked at me either, not until the party tonight.”

“Did you figure it out before or after I kissed you at midnight?”

“Yes.” Aerith laughed.

Tifa’s hand came to a rest on Aerith’s rear, “Throwing caution to the wind is your style, not mine.”

“And yet.” She wriggled her butt under Tifa’s hand and then Tifa just _had_ to grope it just a little bit.

“And yet, here we are.”

Tifa was already laying down, so all Aerith had to do was slide up her body and straddle her. She leaned over Tifa, hands on her shoulders, “Exactly.”

Staring up at her and searching her eyes, Tifa weighed what she wanted. And while she wanted this, she wanted _Aerith_ , she didn’t exactly want it on the roof of her establishment while their best friends and _Marlene_ were sleeping beneath them. “Would you rather do this here, underneath this light polluted sky, or would you rather make love to me with the unobstructed heavens as our blanket?”

Aerith exhaled, shifting slightly on top of Tifa as her eyes grew darker, “I’m not going to survive the next forty-five days, but I’ve already lusted after you for four hundred so what’s a little longer?”

“Think of it as incentive,” Tifa said, pulling Aerith back down and kissing her,savoring those strawberries. She probably wouldn’t survive the next month and a half either, but it might be fun to try.

“Happy New Year,” Aerith murmured, and Tifa held onto her just a little more tightly.


End file.
